Campbell diaries: proof that all news is local

Coverage of Alastair Campbell's diaries proves that all news is local. The New York Times leads off on Tony Blair's problems in 2002 in supporting "America's hard-line stance against Saddam Hussein". Australia's Sydney Morning Herald noses on advice given to Blair by former Oz prime minister Paul Keating on how to win support from Rupert Murdoch in 1995. "Murdoch is a hard bastard", said Keating, "and you need a strategy for dealing with him."

The Scotsman concentrates on Blair's "difficult relationship with the country of his birth". When talking to Gordon Brown it is uncertain whether he dislikes his countrymen more than the media: "TB said to him he'd had a day full of whingeing Jock journos saying they wanted devolution and they wanted no tax and they wanted Scotland to get more money and they wanted to win the World Cup and why was I stopping them?"

The Hindustan Times devotes most of its coverage to Blair's decision to invade Iraq in March 2003. He was the only member of government who did not have any private reservations about going into Iraq, says its intro.

Aside from "local interest" coverage, the English-based papers have what we might call "special interests". In other words, they have given their coverage their own spin. So the Daily Mail's intro was no surprise: "Obsessed with spin and frequently displaying symptoms of paranoia, the key players at the heart of New Labour appear more like squabbling characters in a soap opera than serious politicians."

Today's Daily Express ignores the diaries altogether (apart from a small Hickey item). But its website ran a piece about the "goldmine" supposedly excised from the book. It is, of course a long time since Blair and Campbell courted its owner, Richard Desmond, whose papers have been viciously opposed to the government in recent years. By contrast, The Sun treated its readers to a light-hearted romp through the 700-odd pages, selecting some of the funnier moments.

And Press Gazette, naturally enough, did "a quick trawl" in order to reveal some "scathing insults" for Campbell's sparring partners in the press. He calls media commentator Stephen Glover a "deeply unpleasant man", columnist Simon Jenkins "a total wanker" and Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre simply "evil". I think all three will treat these references as badges of honour.

The Gazette adds: "Perhaps most significant in journalistic terms are Campbell's revelations over the way Blair courted Murdoch and the direct sway Murdoch then apparently had over his then editors - Stuart Higgins at The Sun and Peter Stothard at The Times."